Pentagon wants mini-nuke ban ended
Congress asked to permit US to develop 'more usable' bombs
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday March 7, 2003
The Guardian
The Pentagon has asked the US Congress to lift a 10-year ban on the development of small nuclear warheads, or "mini-nukes", in one of the most overt steps President George Bush's administration has taken towards building a new atomic arsenal.
Buried in the defence department's 2004 budget proposals, sent to congressional committees this week, was a single-line statement that marks a sharp change in US nuclear policy.
It calls on the legislature to "rescind the prohibition on research and development of low-yield nuclear weapons".
If passed by Congress, the measure would represent an important victory for radicals in the administration, who believe the US arsenal needs to be overhauled to make it more "usable", and therefore a more meaningful deterrent, to "rogue states" with weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
A Pentagon official said yesterday the research ban on smaller warheads "has negatively affected US government efforts to support the national strategy to counter WMD, and undercuts efforts that could strengthen our ability to deter or respond to new or emerging threats".
Democrats fought off earlier Republican attempts to lift the ban on research and development work on nuclear warheads under five kilotons (a third of the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima), fearing that the new weapons would lead to an end to the US moratorium on nuclear testing, and to a new arms race.
But since the Republicans won back control of the Senate last year, the administration believes it is in a strong position to lift the "Spratt-Furse restriction", named after two Democratic congressmen who proposed the ban in 1993.
"It's significant because this is the first time the administration - and it comes from the department of defence - has said it wants low-yield weapons," said Kathryn Crandall, a nuclear weapons expert at the British American Security Information Council.
She said the policy statement contradicted denials from administration officials that they had any ambitions to build new weapons.
The Pentagon official, who did not want to be named, said a repeal of the research and development ban would not commit the US to developing, producing and deploying new, low-yield warheads. "Such warhead concepts could not proceed to full-scale development, much less production and deployment, unless Congress authorises the substantial funds required to do this," the official said.
Congressional Republicans approved $15m last year for new research on nuclear "bunker busters", bombs designed to penetrate reinforced underground targets before exploding, but those weapons, known as the B83 and the B61, are modifications of existing high-yield nuclear bombs. Developing a new generation of low-yield devices would probably require testing.
The Senate never ratified the comprehensive test ban treaty, but the US imposed a moratorium on testing in 1992.
Many arms experts expect the moratorium and the treaty to come under increasing pressure as work progresses on the new arsenal. "Here we have the administration in one of its more open steps so far," Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based arms control association, said.
"The only reason why the administration might want to pursue low-yield nuclear weapons is to develop a weapon they believe is less damaging to the immediate environment.
"In the strange logic of these people, it would be more 'usable' - the political costs, they believe, will be lower," he said.
John Spratt, a Democratic congressman and one of the authors of the ban on "mini-nukes", accused radicals in the Bush administration of hypocrisy.
"My greatest concern is that some in the administration and in Congress seem to think that the United States can move the world in one direction while Washington moves in another - that we can continue to prevail on other countries not to develop nuclear weapons while we develop new tactical applications for such weapons, and possibly resume nuclear testing," Mr Spratt said.
The Pentagon's request to Congress comes only days after the disclosure of its plans to stage a conference in Omaha in August at which a range of new nuclear weapons, including "mini-nukes", is due to be discussed, and plans drawn up to develop them, test them, and persuade the public of the need for them.
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